My Valentines

Every day for a week now Ava comes into my office when she returns home from school and askes me "Did you buy me the 'Snuggimal' I wanted?" And I respond each time with, "It's not Valentines Day yet, so you'll just have to wait and see." Ava has about 50 different stuffed animals, and yet she is dead-set on getting me to buy her one more. Apparently this one is "special" because the puppy moves its head and wags its tail. I told Ava she has two real dogs that do that already, but she insists anyways. Ugh! The power of advertising on Nickelodeon.

I'm very excited for Valentines Day this year because my house will be filled with people I love. My brother, sister-in-law and their two darling boys are driving down from Flagstaff on Saturday to escape the cold and to stay with us for the night. And my parents are also coming over, driving up from Tucson. I'm not sure what we'll do for fun having everyone together, but it really doesn't matter to me. And Ava is very excited to see her cousins, Braden and Logan. And on Sunday, if the weather cooperates, we may try to go to The Phoenix Zoo for a bit.

I love Valentines day because it provides another good excuse to eat some chocolate and not feel guilty about it. Especially if the chocolate is a gift from someone...I mean it would be rude to not show appreciation for the gift, right?

Ava is having a Valentines Day party in her class tomorrow where they're going to eat plenty of pizza and chocolate and exchange Valentines cards with her little friends. I hear they've been busy decorating shoe boxes to collect the little cards over the last couple of days. Can't wait to see what Ava creates...she loves to draw, color, paint and glue stuff together.

I promise to post pictures!

And on another note--I thought I'd share with you another brand of childrens clothing (for girls), called Cupcakes and Pastries. Their Spring collection of dresses are darling (and pricey). I bought one of their dresses for Ava for our family photos this past summer, and I love how the dress looks in the pictures. I actually saw the dress in 'Cookies' magazine and had to have it, so I tracked down the brand which happened to be Cupcakes and Pastries. A retailer near you may carry the line. Enjoy!